


piece by piece

by sundermount



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: M/M, Post-Timeskip Battle at Gronder Field (Fire Emblem)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:35:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27137398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sundermount/pseuds/sundermount
Summary: Felix attends to Dimitri before battle.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Comments: 8
Kudos: 39





	piece by piece

Dimitri hears voices murmuring outside of his tent. The entrance-flap is lifted and then lowered again, that brief moment amplifying the noise of pre-battle preparations going around in camp. Dimitri turns around to see Felix, almost battle-ready; his swords hang off his belt, although his shield is still absent from his back.

“I almost thought you were Dedue. But then I thought, who else would announce themself by not announcing themself at all?” Dimitri says, as he finishes donning his foundation garments.

Felix does not reply, making for where Dimitri’s armour has been laid out. He does not seem like he would be receptive to Dimitri's attempt at banter, so he holds his tongue as Felix says, "Come here."

Dimitri walks over to where Felix waits and stands before him. Felix crouches—not kneels, Felix would never kneel—to buckle the greaves around Dimitri's shin, taking care to make sure that it does not catch on his hose. He does not look down at Felix before him, lest it elicits a reaction that would not be entirely proper in this situation. And he does not wish to invoke Felix's ire and disrespect the service he offers Dimitri.

Felix reaches for the cuisse next. Dimitri holds himself still, his hand helping to steady it against his thigh as Felix fits it over the front peg of the greave, and then secures it at the back. His movements are precise; they have both squired for others in the past, and Felix is both a fast learner as well as one who does not forget what he has been taught. He threads the loops at the front of Dimitri’s jacket through the point at the top, pulling the first knot hard and doubling it, to ensure it stays. Finally, his hands reach around Dimitri’s inner thigh to fasten the straps there, brusque motions of the hand that get the job done as fast and as well-done as someone who has only done it multiple times can, and he moves on to Dimitri’s upper body.

Dimitri steps into Felix’s embrace as Felix helps him don his breastplate. “Down,” Felix says, and Dimitri does exactly that so Felix does not have to inconvenience himself as he aids Dimitri.

The air that Felix had carried in with him seems as if it has slaked, and Dimitri chances speaking. “I can procure a stool for you. Or you could go up on your tiptoes.” He receives a sharp poke to his ribs for his comment—he would have dodged it, but he is trying to remain as still as he can for Felix’s sake. Felix is as he is, then. The poke barely hurts, but he makes a show of wincing.

“It wouldn’t have affected you if not for your unusually strong opinions on mail.” Felix makes a point to single this out, as he always does.

“My opinions on mail are as present as they currently are in this tent, which is to say that they do not exist. I do not think about things I dislike unless I have to—such as paperwork, for instance.” Dimitri hands the plackart to Felix, fitting himself into it and holding it against his torso as Felix works on the buckles, then fastens the belt he’d inherited along with the armour itself around the narrowest part of it.

Felix does not say anything for a while. “Better paperwork to do, than none at all.” They both know what he means. Better to have work that comes with running a Kingdom, because it means that there _exists_ a Kingdom for them to run.

Dimitri’s left vambrace goes over his forearm fine, but the straps at the elbow of his right are loose. He indicates as such to Felix, who moves into his space, allowing Dimitri’s wrist to rest on his shoulder as he tightens them. “I agree,” Dimitri replies.

The loosened straps were not a coincidence; one would think someone as astutely observant of Dimitri as Felix would have realised it by now. He takes this chance, as he always does, to look his fill of Felix. His hair is longer now than when they’d reunited all those months back. He flicks at an ear. Felix glares at him as he pulls at the strap harder than necessary, before lifting the left pauldron and indicating with his chin for Dimitri to lower himself.

“What are you so _tall_ for,” Felix hisses, as he threads the loops at the shoulder of Dimitri’s jacket through the top points of the pauldron. The first knot is once again pulled hard and tight to secure, before it is doubled.

Dimitri raises himself back to his full height once Felix is done with the knots. “So you can do this with no problem,” he points out, lifting his arm so Felix can tighten and buckle the inner straps so they are laid flat against his arm. “Are you sure you don’t want that stool?”

“Not when you go down exactly when I tell you to,” Felix replies, and Dimitri does exactly that as Felix fetches his cloak. He flips it out with a flick of his wrists, allowing it to billow in an arc around Dimitri before it settles around him and is fastened and clasped into place.

“Thank you, Felix,” Dimitri says. He walks over to his bed, retrieving Aegis from where it’d been laying next to Areadbhar, and his lips curl up into a small smile as Felix struggles to evade his attempts at helping him secure it to his back.

"I can do it— _Dimitri_ —"

"Allow me to help you, Felix."

"Ugh." He finally manages to remain still long enough for Dimitri to do exactly as he wishes. Felix looks up at him, his gaze as steady as his tone. “Remember what I said. Be the boar that you are, and lead us to victory.”

Felix need not have said that, when his prayers and wishes had already been weaved into Dimitri with the movement of his steady hands. It is the closest Dimitri has seen him come to any form of supplication, cloaked in this one act of service he has performed for Dimitri since Gronder.

He tugs Dimitri down and presses his left cheek to Dimitri’s own, whispering into his ear. “Do not let your sword be far from your hand.” _Be safe,_ he is saying.

Dimitri closes his eyes and breathes deep, taking in Felix's scent. His hands, bare of his gauntlets, linger on the side of Felix's head. "We will be victorious, for you will be sharper and deadlier than any blade that will grace that battlefield,” he says. "And because this boar has your protection, my Felix."

**Author's Note:**

> I was rewatching The Handmaiden when I very briefly considered: the corset/undressing scene but make it dmfx, and the opposite.


End file.
